On Thu, 2002-11-14 at 23:23, Technoslick wrote: > As for the hdparms setting you suggested, I am not ashamed to admit that > without checking the man pages, I haven't a clue as to what they mean or why > you have imposed them over the deafult settings. I am still very new to the > very hands-on control of Linux with hardware, not having had to do this > since the days of MS/PC-DOS. It's really exciting to have so much control, > but also aggrevating to someone use to getting what he needs done > immediately because of time and experience with an O/S. I don't have that in > Linux as yet. That's why I love being here. :-) > > Would you mind telling my why you feel it beneficial to over-ride the > defaults? > > TIA > > T :-) > Firstly, I never trust ANY installations defaults for ANYTHING. I always try to customize where I find I CAN customize, and force it otherwise. Rarely have I seen a *nix installation that didn't require some tweaking here or there - ditto with ANY version of Windows, ANY version of MacOS, ANY version of OS/2, ANY version of *NIX in a corporate environment (Sorry, Solaris - yes, even YOU need a tweak here and there!) - with the exception of BeOS - which only needed to have a proper video driver - else it really did run at peak "out of the box".
Secondly, each HD has it's idiosyncrasies, hence, to force it's optimal performance, one must find what is necessary to MAKE it perform. If all of us were using SCSI drives, that would be a different story, but we're not - we're enslaved to the EIDE market. In linux installations, the initial settings don't always reflect the bus speed nor the drive params, so by finding the best params for your HD and forcing them via either script or by hacking the /etc/rc.d init scripts, you're ensuring that your drives are doing the best. Do you ever see linux installations (or any other OS for that matter) best pick your video drivers? You might get something "close", but never really on target. If you want max performance, you get the proper driver, and properly set it up. Any time I hear or find problems with sound or slow graphics in linux, first I start looking at system performance and drive performance - then onwards to video, then the actual sound after that. Mostly, by the time I get to the video bit, the issue has been resolved. So, in a nutshell, that's what I think IMHO... -- Fri Nov 15 09:50:01 EST 2002 -------------------------------- | __ __ | | / \ /| |'-. | | .\__/ || | | | | _ / `._ \|_|_.-' | | | / \__.`=._) (_ |kuhn media australia | |/ ._/ |"""""""""| |http://kma.0catch.com | |'. `\ | | |stephen kuhn | ;"""/ / | | |email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | smk ) /_/| |.-------.| |mobile: 0410-728-389 | ' `-`' " " |linux user:267497 -------------------------------- As I argued in "Beloved Son", a book about my son Brian and the subject of religious communes and cults, one result of proper early instruction in the methods of rational thought will be to make sudden mindless conversions -- to anything -- less likely. Brian now realizes this and has, after eleven years, left the sect he was associated with. The problem is that once the untrained mind has made a formal commitment to a religious philosophy -- and it does not matter whether that philosophy is generally reasonable and high-minded or utterly bizarre and irrational -- the powers of reason are suprisingly ineffective in changing the believer's mind. - Steve Allen, comdeian, from an essay in the book "The Courage of Conviction", edited by Philip Berman
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